Rod Warner: Roundabouts will benefit drivers, walkers and taxpayers

I heard a grizzled old traffic engineer say a modern roundabout is "the greatest intersection management tool man has devised since the Stone Age, and it's done with Stone Age material."

His remark sprung to mind during the Florida Department of Transportation's final design event last week for the first modern roundabouts on Sarasota's U.S. 41 at 10th and 14th streets.

Funded by fees and taxes collected for transportation, FDOT plans a 2017 build. Our U.S. 41 Momentum team is pressing the FDOT to "compress calendar" to December 2016, in time for beach-bound visitors to the 2017 International Rowing Championships. The FDOT website for it is www. US41roundabouts.com.

These two roundabouts will be followed by others along U.S. 41 from University Parkway through Orange Avenue. With 47th Street expected to be funded next year, there will be 11 modern roundabouts along this corridor reconfigured to be safer, aesthetic and more mobile for all users, on wheels and on foot. The corridor plan is at www.US41Momentum. com.

Some sunny day, you'll drive from the airport down North Tamiami Trail and along the Bayfront without stopping to wait at red lights. Not waiting, your travel time should be just as fast as it is today, likely quicker outside peak traffic. That's happening along 58 U.S. roundabout corridors (Golden, Colo.; San Diego; Sonoma, Ariz. and Malta, N.Y, others, and Honore Avenue in Sarasota).

Sarasota's U.S. 41 roundabout "grand boulevard" will stand out from those because ours is urban with two-lane roundabouts. Even more exceptional, with Sarasota as the cultural heart of Florida, the City Public Art Committee and the Sarasota County Arts and Cultural Alliance are planning iconic sculptures as the center verticals, lighted at night. Picture U.S. 41 at University Parkway as the marker for the complex of New College, the University of South Florida, the Asolo Theatre and the Ringling.

Letters last week to the Herald-Tribune expressed angst about this -- accident worry, "people here will never get it," and so on.

So why would the city, the Metropolitan Planning Organization, and the FDOT do this? Why would that aging engineer say "greatest since"?

Stone Age material? Just dirt, asphalt and concrete. The design lets you run the intersection when you are there -- efficient, user-managed. No one at a computer somewhere wrongly guessing how much red-light time you wait -- inefficient, state-managed. No taxpayer electricity costs. Ready for hurricane evacuation and emptying the Van Wezel parking. People make mistakes, but the accident is a fender-bender, not a head-on killer.

Modern roundabouts -- not older, Siesta-Drive-at-Tuttle-Avenue "circles" or Northeast "rotaries" -- began appearing in the U.S. about 15 years ago. With time, in a roundabout way, unintended consequences appeared. What began as a safer round thing in the road made what's around it blossom:

• Slowed drivers noticed businesses they sped by before, now with easier access.

• Green centers and landscaped approaches replaced cold, empty, speed-through signals. Together with less noise and less air pollution, nearby sidewalk cafes were comfortable (Café Americano at Five Points). Businesses put "roundabout" in their name (Roundabout Tavern, Gainesville; Patrick's restaurant has a "roundabout burger.")

• Users were everyone. Without impeding traffic flow, slower speed and a mid-crossing "safe harbor" an intersection was made safer for walkers, bikers, and the physically challenged, with enhanced transit stops (Clearwater).

• All this worked even better with roundabouts in series. The first rounder adjusted driver attitude to a slower speed that was sustained smoothly through the entire corridor.

The U.S. 41 Momentum team (Ron McCollough, Roger Barry, David Morris and I) has learned these "unintended" roundabout facets engendered a refreshed vitality and livability everywhere they're applied. Knowing so, no matter how grizzled we become, our mission is to encourage the FDOT to apply some private sector velocity to the U.S. 41 Multimodal Corridor so you enjoy your "grand boulevard" sooner.

Rod Warner is chair of US41 Momentum, a Sarasota County representative to the MPO Citizens Advisory Committee and a member of the Federal Highway Administration Peer2Peer Roundabout Team.